Refrigerating apparatus



Defi- 1931- G. s. DICKEY REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed Feb 25. 1928 Patented Dec. 1, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GRANVILLE s. DICKEY, OI DAYTON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO FRIGIDAIRE CORPORATION, OF DAYTON, OHIO, A. CORPORATION OF DELAWARE REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Application filed February 25, 1928. Serial No. 257,071.

This invention relates to improvements in the construction of refrigerators, and moreparticularly the interior construction of the same.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved type of shelf for holding articles to be chilled in position in the interior of refrigerators and which will support small containers and the like without upsetting.

With this object in view the invention contemplates providing a shelf which will not interfere with the circulation of air within the refrigerator and which will present a perfectly plane surface to objects placed thereupon.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein a preferred form of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 illustrates a front View partly in section of a refrigerator equipped with the improved shelf of the inventionhFig. 2 shows a top view of the improved s elf; v

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 4 is a view of a section of the shelf, and illustrates one method of making the same.

In the construction of refrigerators and particularly those of the mechanically refrigerated household type, difiiculty has been experienced in providing satisfactory means within the cabinet for supporting objeets to be chilled. One of the difficulties consists in supporting small containers without upsetting or causing them to tilt so as to cause the contents to spill. This is due to the fact that shelves made solely of a lattice work of spaced parallel rods held at their ends by appropriate frames do not present a perfectly plane superficial surface suitable for the support ofsuch containers. Attempts have been made to use gratings or the like of woven wire for the construction of such shelves, but neither means provides a satisfactory flat supporting surface.

By means of the improved shelf construction of the present invention a substantially flat crossed-wire type of shelf structure is provided which permits the safe positioning and retention of even small sized food containers and the like, and which does not interfere with the circulation of air within the cabinet.

Referring in detail to the drawings, the improved shelf of the invention comprises a frame 10 made of stiff rod bent into the shape of the shelf and upon which a gratelike structure of thinner rods or Wires s mounted.

This grate-like structure in the preferred embodiment of the invention is composed of a plurality of relatively stiff wires or rods 11 spaced from each other and extending transversely across the frame in one direction as shown in Fig. 2. Extending from left to right as viewed in the drawings and across the wires 11 are similar wires or rods 12 which are also retained in place on the frame 10. The wires or rods 12 are sharply bent at the points where they cross the rods 11 so as to pass or loop around them in the manner shown in the enlarged view, Fig.4. It will be observed that by this means the top surface of wires 11 will lie in the same plane as the top surface of the straight portions of wires 12 so that notwithstanding the wire mesh or lattice effect produced by the shelf, it will nevertheless present a perfectly plane top or superficial surface to articles placed thereupon.

The wires or rods may be retained in place upon the frame 10 by having their ends bent over as at 13 to embrace the end bars of the frame, although of course, any suitable method of fastening may be used such as by drilling holes in the frame 10 for the reception of the ends of the wires or rods. The completed shelf may be finished, if desired, by dipping into a tinning bath or the like which may also serve to unite the wires 11 to the bent portions of wires 12 so as to produce a rigid structure. It is obvious, of course, that if sufliciently rigid wires or rods are used it may not be necessary to solder them together in this manner.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention the shelf is formed of straight transverse w1res or rods which are embedded in another set of wires or rods bearing sharply-bent.

loops at the points where they intersect the transverse rods. It is apparent that a. purelyinvention the shelf may be preliminarily formed by the usual process of weaving, if the woven form is preferred after which the woven structure is passed through suitablerollers in order to produce the plane superficial surface desired by depressing or embedding one wire within the other. If desired, the wires may also be preformed by a contin uous process during which they may be provided with the looped portions adapted to receive the other wires after which the Woven or non-woven type of shelf may be formed therefrom.

An apparatus for carrying out a method for producing a shelf of this type is diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 4 in which the shelf in the course of manufacture is illustrated as being compressed between shaping a die block 40 and a forcing member 41, operated by suitable means (not shown), the direction of pressure being indicated by arrow 44. In this case the wire 12 is forced into the depressions in the die block 40 by the wire 11 and the forcing member 41, thus producing the looped portions 43 in which the wires 11 are embedded. It will be appreciated that the apparatus herein shown for carrying out the method is merely illustrative and that any suitable apparatus may be used for producing the looped sections andfor embedding the wire 11 within' the wire 12, it being understood that the straight portions 42 of wire 12 (Fig. 4) must lie in the same plane with the top portion of the wire 11. The diameter of the depression in such a case is, of course, the same as the diameter of the wire 11.

Bythis means a shelf is produced which has the rigidity of a woven wire shelf and which nevertheless presents a flat superficial surface since the straight portions of the wires which form the warp are in the same plane with the corresponding parts of the Wires which form the weft.

In Fig. 1 is illustrated a type of iceless refri erator provided with the improved food sheIf of the invention. The refrigerator comprises a cabinet having thermally insulated "walls 30 and provided with means for producing mechanical refrigeration such as a refrigerating element 31 which may be furrushed with refrigerant from a distant point,

e. g., by apparatus located in the louvered able means such as angle members, mouldings or the like. The air within the cabinet cooled by the refrigerating element 31 descends to the lower portion of the cabinet through an opening (not shown) in the bottom of the compartment in which the element is mounted and rises through the trays to return to the refrigerating compartment at its upper portion. It is apparent that the construction of the shelves not only permits the unhindered circulation of air throughout the interior of the refrigerator, but by virtue of the plane surface small containers may be placed upon the topmost shelves without danger of upsetting and 'spillingtheir contents upon the articles disposed upon the lower shelves.

While the form of embodiment of the invention as herein disclosed, constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, all coming within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is as-follows:

1. The method of making a shelf for a refrigerator which comprises placing one set of longitudinally extending rods upon another set of rods extendin transversely thereto, applying pressure to t e sets to cause one set of rods to form bends in the other set at the points of intersection and to become embedded therein and releasing the pressure when the straight surfaces of both sets are in the same plane and securing said sets to a frame member extending around all sides of said shelf.

2. A shelf for refrigerators comprising a frame extending around the outer edges of the.shelf,'two sets of rods arranged transversely to one another. and carried by said frame member, all of the rods of one of said sets being straight and lying in the same plane and extending longitudinally in the same direction to provide a surface for articles adapted to be supported and slid longitudinally thereon along the length of said straight rods, the rods of said other set being transverse to said set of straight longitudinally disposed rods and being bent around the underside of said longitudinal straight rods so that the upper surfaces of the transverse rods lying between adjacent longitudinal rods are in the same plane as the upper surfaces of 'said longitudinal straight rods and forming therewith a plane surface adapted for the support and ready sliding of objects thereon in the direction of said longitudinal straight rods.

In testimony whereof I hereto aflix my sig- 

